Sunday, March 11, 2012

Pro-Death Policies

LA Times columnist Sandy Banks wrote about Project Prevention on October 17, 2009.


http://digitalmicrofilm1.proquest.com.libproxy.csun.edu/RollForm.aspx?jobNum=proquest


This program gives poor women access to long-term contraception--IUDs, implants, hormone patches, and shots.


Drug-using women who have multiple pregnancies and give the babies away are the target of this program.    See http://www.projectprevention.org/


They are even paid for using birth control through this program.


"We are helping mothers heal when we keep unwanted children from being born," writes Sandy. 


She was moved to write her column after reading about the deaths of two foster children who had made their way through LA County's child welfare system.


Miguel Padilla, age 17, hanged himself, and Lazhanae Harris, age 13, was stabbed to death, both in 2009.


Lazhanae was the third of nine children born to a drug-using mother who gave each child away at birth.  Lazhanae's siblings include one who died as a toddler; five who wound up in foster care, and two who are unaccounted for. In 2009 the mother was only 33 years old. 


Sandy's concluding comment: the rights of these children "ought to be as important as Mom's."


She means that being pro-life while a child is unborn is not enough. 


A truly pro-life policy would make birth control widely available to women at no cost and would not encourage women to complete pregnancies if they don't plan to keep the baby.  It would make sure that unwanted babies actually have good homes and education.


Our new national health care plan would take steps toward making contraception available to all women at no cost.


Those who oppose widespread access to contraception are pro-death.  Their restrictions would cause more abortions, more unwanted babies put up for adoption, and more children ending up in the child welfare systems of the nation. 


The end result is more children like Miguel and Lazhanae who die in their teens or earlier because they were unwanted and never had a fair chance in life.




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